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andydy 3 posts
I was wondering if anyone knows what the most common 3d animation program in the industry is? My friend tells me he thinks it is Maya but doesnt really know many things made with it. I am starting to learn Lightwave in school and don't really know much about it either. Let me know what you know, thanks.
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Aden 622 posts
I would say there is a large collection of commonly used programs out there.
The company i used to work for (part time cameraman) they used to use 3dsmax and Maya in the Studio's and most other companies ive looked at seem to be profficant in most of the programs.
The ones ive heard of the most is:
3d apps:
3dsmax
Maya
XSI
Modo
Lightwave
Zbrush (Texturing and such)
2d apps:
Photoshop
Coral Painter
MS Paint FTW!!! (Sorry had too)
To me all them programs are common to me and i hear about all of them on daily basis. Your best bet is just checkout what most people tend to use, check out forums, read interviews, ask friends and such.
I started off with 3dsmax (Ver 3) a loonnggg time ago but in the 5-6 years ive been doing it ive looked at tons of other programs, i just felt fluent in 3dsmax i guess because it was my starting point.
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Hi there,
I'd really suggest learning either Maya, 3dsmax or XSI (in that order of importance).
Frankly, learning Lightwave won't get you very far in the industry since most places require you to have a standard knowledge of Maya and/or Max.
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Franklyn 553 posts
tyson you would be surprised ... there are a few artists in Digital Domain that use lightwave . it all depends on the pipeline that studios use it really differs from one to the other . but i do agree that for the most part its max or maya.
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Global 1,589 posts
I'd say the same as Tyson - but I'd add that you need not worry too much about the specific app you learn with. If you grasp the principles of one app then switching to another is not as major as you may think.
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Frank:
I understand your point, and even my boss here at work still uses Lightwave.
That being said....although it is still used in different places....you'd be kicking yourself in the foot to spend your time concentrating on learning it since it's use is phasing out fast.
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andydy 3 posts
Hey thanks for your replies. From what i have been find out too is that most places want you to be proficient in maya or 3dsm.
I am a little dissapointed to learn the class is going to be on a program not so commonly used in the industry, but i have seen some great looking stuff made with lightwave.
I cant imagine switching from one app to another is very difficult once i get down the basics but getting my hands on maya will be, since i dont think my school has it.
Is lightwaves use really phasing out fast?
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ant- 73 posts
lightwave is oldschool, the program is solid and people swear by it, but having worked with people using it, i really think its a bit of a dinosaur, the core of the program is now very old, it needs a rewrite really. (the active plug-ins comunity is what sustains its use)
i was a storyboarder for the captain scarlet tv series, started out in maya/renderman, but nearly fell apart after the pilot episodes (prman is not a good idea for broadcast). Ron 'babylon 5' Thornton turned up and turned the pipeline to maya/lightwave, it saved the day, they could animate in maya, and render in lightwave, it was quick and effective, but it was limiting, even the great renderer suffers from poor memory usage, they couldn't render more than one character at a time!
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
I should also note that the one good thing Lightwave does have for it is FPrime.
FPrime =
x at least 14
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Global 1,589 posts
Tsyon's comment =
x 12
What is FPrime?
Ant - interesting... and there were no probs importing rigs and animation?
Andy - Get hold of Maya PLE (Private Learning Edition)... download free from Alias website
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andydy 3 posts
thanks for letting me know about the maya ple. im downloading it now.
i think FPrime is lightwaves render engine that lets you render interactively with what ever it is your working on
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ivanisavich 4,196 posts
Yea andy you are correct.
FPrime = interactive Vray, basically.
Very fast and a great tool to use while you're working on setting up your scene's lighting/textures
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Global 1,589 posts
Didn't Max have a plugin that did something like this? Dang I can't remember the name...
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ant- 73 posts
yes, fprime is certainly cool, didn't quite look the same as lightwaves render, but makks the ipr look stupid
@global -- they used a system called beaver project to convert stuff, it was quite time consuming, but were able to automate it by the end. before that people were 'beavering' day and night
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Cameron 2,374 posts
'beavering' day and night eh? Sounds like fun.
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BColbourn 2,323 posts
